Response to the Film Cracking the Maya Code (Due by the End of Week 10—Friday, 7 N

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Response to the film Cracking the Maya Code (Due by the end of Week 10—Friday, 7 November 2014; Your Name Will Be Logged)

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(123) In your opinion, what are the three most important points that one should take away from the film Cracking the Maya Code? - 1. The mayans wrote in hieroglyphics. 2. Many of their preserved writing can be found on stela. 3. The mayan empire was very large it stretched from Chichén Itzá in the north to Copán in the south. - 1. In the 16th century, the Spanish tried to convert the Mayans to Catholicism and destroyed many Mayan writings. 2. Early explorers of Middle America once thought that Hindus or Babylonians had created the Mayan hieroglyphics. 3. The use of a camera helped to give us a better record of the Mayan hieroglyphics and made the deciphering of these hieroglyphs much easier. - First is the film's illustration on how hard it was to understand Mayan hieroglyphs. It took a few people such as Proskouriakoff and Knorozov who found a few key features and thinking outside common paths about the glyphs, and finally managed to decipher their meanings.

Second is the loss of language in general. It took some dedicated people to finally examine the glyphs and return culture back to an ancient society. This isn't to say the modern Maya had no culture, but now that their language is deciphered, this allows modern Maya to have more of a connection with their ancestry and can better understand their history that may have been lost due to colonialism.

Third is the actual simplicity of the Maya hieroglyphs. Once the basic system was discovered, the rest of the hieroglyphs were made easier. After the discovery made by David Stuart found more than one meaning for syllables, whole stories could finally be discerned.

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- In the 1880s Maudslay brought a glass plate camera and got really good pictures of the Maya glyph's. Previously they had to be hand drawn. Because they were hand drawn they lacked the detail they needed to be deciphered. Deciphering started with the discovery of Maya numerals. A French guy discovered this. Then a German guy in Dresden stumbled on the Dresden codex and discovered a symbol that meant going back and time. In the end it was believed to be the beginning of time. Eric Thompson believed that the hieroglyphs were not sounds but symbols. There was a Russian guy who suggested that they were syllables. He combined what he knew of the Maya language with the codex. But his ideas were shot down by the Americans and Europeans trying to crack the code. They believed what Eric Thompson said. - I thought that the important points of the movie included that the Spanish burned almost all of the ancient Mayan texts in a process of conversion to Catholicism which eliminated most of the keys to interpreting the written Mayan language. Also, the international "race" to figure out the language and the various ideas and theories that persisted over the years shaped the early studies of the language. Finally, the breakthrough that the images found were histories and stories of past events and rulers and that each sound or word had many different symbols to represent it was very important. - From the film, "Cracking the Maya Code", I found that the three most important points were the discoveries from Tatiana Proskerurokoff; the Dresden Codex rediscovered in Germany; the discovery that the Maya language was represented through letters and phonetics. - One important point made by this movie is that the Mayans were the only fully literate ancient culture in New World. The fact that they had they could read and had their own writing system attests to their intelligence. A second important point made by this movie is that they had more than one symbol to represent the same word. That could make deciphering their language a little harder. It is also amazing that David Stuart figured it out at such a young age. The third important point of this film was that they were able to figure out how to speak the Mayan language. And by being able to speak it, they were able to give history and culture back to the present-day Mayan people. A person's culture is important to a person because it is a part of them, and being able to know their culture can give them a sense of pride of where they came from.

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- I think the most important note of all is the ability now for the Mayan people today to be able to rediscover their language and their history. It is a huge accomplishment for them to be able to understand their ancestors and their people's accomplishments. The other points I thought to be important were the different stages in that the hieroglyphs became decoded. One was that it was discovered that the symbols were a mixture of word signs and phonetic signs of their language. David Stuart discovered the last piece of the puzzle while studying with Stele at Palenque. Another important point is that many different signs can stand for the same thing and symbols could be combined to create many different looking glyphs that have the same meaning. - 1. In the 16th century the Spanish destroyed the majority of Mayan parchments; the few that have survived were used to decipher the hieroglyphs of the Maya.

2. Yuri Kronozov was the first Russian Mayanist that found the hieroglyphs to be logographic; however, his work was discredited by Western Mayanists for years.

3. David Schultz, one of the most important Mayanists ever, found that certain syllables could be represented by multiple symbols. - Many different symbols could actually stand for the same letter. They think this is because they didn't like repetition so they would come up with multiple ways to write the same thing. It was not only a written language, but an art.

They told stories of rulers and their lives and the lives of their successors with their written language.

They were much more deep than originally thought. They got deep into their psyche and the into spirituality as well as out of this world ideas.

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- Scientists have been trying to find out what the symbols were on Mayan architecture. Tania Proskiriacof found that the stela represented each life of the kings.

In the 1880's the camera was used to capture the glyphs. This allowed the scientists to study the forms of the hieroglyphs at greater detail over the old way of studying drawings of glyphs.

The Dresden Codex was one of only four books that survived the Spanish conquest of the Mayan world. This book had sat for decades in a library until somebody finally found what it was. The Codex is one of only four books that held the key to cracking the Mayan code. - In my opinion, the three most important points are:

1. Archaeologists studied Mayan symbols and hieroglyphs to understand how the Mayans lived, communicated, and what/who they believed in spiritually. 2.From these symbols and hieroglyphs, archaeologists learned Mayan religion, language, lifestyle, morals, and overall well being. 3. The writing and art they left behind were symbols of their souls. - * The hieroglyphs weren't just random Mayan drawings, there were actual patterns that made up a written language * It's important to know that many of the Maya books were burned by the Spanish conquistador Diego de Landa, and that all archaeologists have to go on to interpret their language is the hieroglyphs the Maya carved into stone. * I think it's important to recognize the impact current affairs can have on archaeological research. WW1 caused Knonovsov to be isolated within the Iron Curtain, giving him a fresh perspective on the Maya hieroglyphs without the influence of Eric Thompson. Unfortunately, the work he did suggesting that the drawings depicted a spoken language went unrecognized in the West.

https://ay14.moodle.umn.edu/mod/feedback/analysis.php?id=587345&courseid&do_sho... 11/16/2014 Response to the film Cracking the Maya Code (Due by the end of Week 10—Friday, 7 N... Page 6 of 7

- 1) The movie highlights the loss of the Mayan language during the Spanish conquest which burned books that would be full of History. Now only 4 four books and ancient ruins remain to decipher the language. 2) The complicated Mayan language includes 800 symbols to represent a limited logographic system. The symbols need to be accurately duplicated and replicated so that all details are correct in order to solve the puzzle. 3) Linguists have been able to decipher the language by learning the spoken language of the Mayans and piecing together morphemes to learn what symbols represent what elements of language. The current Mayan language combined with the learned spoken language of the Mayans helps the Mayan community learn about their History. - one of the most important points brought up in the film was that there is little information about the Mayans that is written down. The only things left behind were scriptures written in pyramids or pottery. The other important point in the film was how they deciphered the scriptures. They took years of scientific work to decode it and they are pretty similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs. The third most important part was the use of astronomy. They had discovered a system of stars where they could determine dates or times of the year. - That the cracking of the code took many years, from many different people from a vast array of backgrounds.

That as the Maya language was more and more understood, the perception of them changed greatly. In the beginning they were seen as some of the most peaceful people the world had ever seen and as more of the language came to the light, they were seen has a very powerful and warring civilization much like the rest of the great civilizations of the world.

Also that the Maya language and culture is finally being restored to its people and that the once extinct language and writing is beginning to be written and spoken by its own people again () Did You Like the film? - Like: 14 (87.50 %) - Didn't 0 Like:

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- No 2 (12.50 %) Opinion: - Didn't 0 See It: (Rating) Overall how would you rate the film? - 1 star: 0 - 2 stars: 0 - 3 stars: 3 (18.75 %) - 4 stars: 6 (37.50 %) - 5 stars: 7 (43.75 %) - Didn't See It: 0 (Critique) Comments ------I really enjoyed learning about the variety of international scholars who made significant discoveries in breaking the Mayan code and how their discoveries benefited one another. - - - Good video - - - - I don't understand how archaeologists can possibly know the phonetic words behind the Maya hieroglyphs, or how they can draw conclusions as to what certain symbols mean what. - - -

https://ay14.moodle.umn.edu/mod/feedback/analysis.php?id=587345&courseid&do_sho... 11/16/2014